Warriors without weapons black servicemen in the union defence force during the second world war
Date
2016-08-17
Authors
Botha, Kevin Frank
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Abstract
The central feature of service in the Second world War for black
soldiers, was the continuation of racial discrimination along the
lines of that 'experienced by them in civilian life in South
Africa. This discrimination affected almost every aspect of
military service; from recruitment and training,to their'
deployment as unarmed soldiers in non-combatant duties in various
units.
This dissertatiQn uses both oral and archival sources to comment
upon,and analyze the responses of black members of the Union
Defence Force to their service in the war.These responses are
at times complementary, and at Other times Contradictory but one
general conclusion to be drawn from them, is that black soldiers
felt their contribution to the south African war effort had gone
large1y unrecognised, either in remunerative or socio-political
terms.
Black servicemen were not only discriminated against by both the
state and individual whites in the Union Defence Force, they were
also used inefficiencly in a military context. The views of
certain white soldiers have been used to illustrate this, both
from a contemporary perspective and a historical one.
The hasty formation of the Corps in which blacks served; the
Non-European Army Services, its administrative weaknesses, and
occasional disunity in its leadership, also hampered the
effective use of black servicemen in the war.
Description
A dissertation submitted
to the
Faculty of History,
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
in fulfilment of the requirements
for the
Degree of Master of Arts in History
September 1992